Policy of Truth?

It's always a bit scary to ask your students what is it that you love about your teacher. You never know what kind of responses you will get. This is one of my favorite questions to ask because kids don't know that you're supposed to be nice and find something to say. Sometimes kids are very blunt and I'll get the classic - NOTHING, and other times amazing responses make me tear up a little - I love Mrs. Prophet because she is blunt and tells us like it is in the real world because we need to hear it.

Today was a tough day. Students have been struggling with self-management and justice fighting. Justice fighting is my way of describing what happens when kids try to explain what they were doing when it all went wrong in class (some people call it talking back). I talk to kids all the time about using their powerful voices productively, but this year it is been a struggle. I'm struggling to help kids understand that not all adults are like Mrs. Prophet and there are many adults in this world that will try to silence them.

Today was one of those days! I got a little choked up while trying to talk to the kids in my class because I always want everyone to love them the way I do. The kids will tell you that I cry sometimes when we talk about this stuff. It's an unfortunate side effect of getting close to a class and trying to help them become better humans.


Most adults grew up in the era when kids were taught that authority is to be respected and never questioned, but is that really what we want our kids to think? We are living in a world where it's essential for us to learn how to evaluate sources and perspectives and see if they square with a world that we want to live in. I believe that kids are just people that haven't learned how to navigate this world effectively yet.


When they are taught to sit down and shut up, we all lose. When we teach kids that their opinions don't matter, they stop listening to us. When we teach kids content and never build a relationship with them, nothing will happen but resistance. I want my students to learn how to question authority but maintain respect in the method that they do it.

Do I think that teachers deserve student respect? Sure do.

Do I think that teachers are unfairly blamed for many things? Yep!

Do I think that all students regardless of how they treat teacher deserve respect? Of course!

Do I think that teachers do a lot of things that cause students to lose respect for them? Yes!

We are all humans and we need to remember that how we talk to people matters. If we disregard the people element of education, we ALL lose.

So as my kiddo said today: Mrs. Prophet is blunt, she tells us what it's like in the real world because we need to hear it. The truth is we all need to hear it. We need to step up and take care of each other. Maybe flip our thinking a bit. If we start to believe that someone who is giving us a hard time is actually a person having a hard time, maybe we can open our hearts and minds to the needs of others.